Last week, as part of a series of editorials, we discussed the idea of the PC as we know it potentially going away as technology continues to converge upon mobile devices. Many, many commenters took this to mean that we thought PC desktop style experiences were going to vanish in exchange for highly disposable mobile apps. In actuality, all we were ever trying to suggest is that as mobile devices get faster, for most people it won’t make a whole lot of sense to have a dedicated personal computer when the brains of your mobile device can do all the same things when hooked up to the peripherals that arguably play a way more important role in the usage patterns people think of when they imagine how you use a desktop computer for gaming or productivity purposes. If you’re playing a game on a large LCD display, using a keyboard and mouse, does it really matter if it’s a mobile device that’s powering it all?
Last week we were largely talking in hypotheticals, but as of this morning’s Microsoft press conference, they’re effectively doing exactly what I was talking about. Microsoft is on the verge of releasing the Microsoft Display Dock. The way it works is practically exactly what I described, in that you plug your phone into the Display Dock which then has three USB ports for peripherals along with both HDMI and DisplayPort for video out.
Once you do that, you get the full Windows 10 desktop experience, controlled via a keyboard and mouse with all the Windows desktop functionality you’re used to like keyboard shortcuts, the task bar, etc. Cooler yet, this whole desktop experience is totally independent of everything going on with your phone. You can grab your phone, open other apps, take a phone call, play a game, or whatever else you want and whatever you’re doing on the desktop side is totally uninterrupted.
Is Microsoft’s top-end Lumia 950 going to be fast enough to play PC desktop style games? Probably not, but this is the most concrete, real world example that we’ve seen that this is where we’re headed. Hell, if I could plug my phone in to a Display Dock-like accessory and play League of Legends, I’d have no reason to even own a proper PC anymore. Either way, both the price and release date of the Display Dock (along with most of the other stuff Microsoft announced) haven’t been revealed yet. I can’t wait to try this out and see what it looks like after a few years of refinement and hardware iterations.
